“When you have players like that who entertain you week in, week out - you have to protect that”

David GinolaFormer Spurs midfielder

The yellow card was Bale's seventh of the season but Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas felt the decision
"was a little bit harsh",
with replays suggesting there was contact between Bale and Fulham's Steve Sidwell.

Villas-Boas also said Bale, 23, was only trying to protect himself after suffering "big, big injuries to his ankles".

Ginola believes officials should protect players of Bale's ability rather than punish them and said it was hard for a player to shake off a reputation for diving once he had been singled out for criticism.

He also said Bale's pace was sometimes the reason he went to ground.

"You don't need a big tackle to go down," said Ginola. "A little push would be enough to lose the balance.

"Football is about entertainment. When you have players like that who entertain you week in, week out, you have to protect that. It's so precious.

"You have to take care of them because they are little diamonds in a league like the English Premier League.

"I thought he was a diamond when I saw him play against Inter Milan and score three goals [in 2010]. He is special."

Ginola, who played more than 100 games for Spurs in three years at White Hart Lane from 1997-2000 and also played for Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Everton, believes Bale has the potential to be even better than another Wales star, Ryan Giggs.

"To be put alongside Ryan Giggs is a huge compliment for Gareth Bale, but one day Ryan Giggs will be very happy to be named alongside Gareth Bale," said Ginola.

"He is the complete player and still very young. He has got everything. He is going to be a huge asset for the world of football in the next few years."

Ginola also wants Bale to stay in a Spurs side that he thinks can get better and eventually do well in the Champions League.

"When you have a diamond, you don't sell diamonds," said the 45-year-old Frenchman. "You try to keep them."

Comments

Perhaps there should be retrospective decisions made following a public poll... or perhaps the refs should just do their jobs and be given support by the fa or fifa and UEFA... allow refs to admit their mistakes and make sure they award free-kicks when players don't go down. Its not just bale, it was P Neville recently :(Empower the ref and let them review and make appropriate sanctions post game

@773.yeedoe 1 Hour ago With Gareth it started with a horrendous potentially career threatening challenge from Charlie Adam playing for Liverpool------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What a load of **** He dives to get free kick's and penalties and to get people booked. It has nothing to do with "avoiding injury"

As for the perception other sports are cleaner than football how about rugby/bloodgate, cricket/spot betting scandal, cycling/ravenous drug taking, horse racing/doping and hobbling. This idea that football is somehow any dirtier than any other sport is a myth.

With Gareth it started with a horrendous potentially career threatening challenge from Charlie Adam playing for Liverpool. At the time we were amazed it wasn't a straight red and even more amazed when after the game he wasn't given any retrospective punishment for such a horrible action. Neither the FA or referee protected him. The same happened when Charlie Adam tried it for a second time.

Either he gets booked or he breaks his foot. Harry told Bale to ride the challenges, and the result was he was out for weeks at a time. I ran through a tackle earlier this year and broke my foot. When you're a big lad moving at speed you may break something. So Bale needs to avoid some challenges, but he needs to show the referee that he is JUST PROTECTING HIMSELF and NOT looking for a foul. How?

Professional snooker players put footballers to shame. If only footballers could show the sportsmanship shown by Stephen Maguire in his UK Championship match against Stuart Bingham yesterday. He owned up to a push shot the referee hadn't seen and went on to lose both the frame and the match. I couldn't take any pleasure from winning if I knew I had done so unfairly.

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